Cheap Yellow Display Video Player (ESP32-2432S028)

Youtube Tutorial

Warning: Make sure you have the board model ESP32-2432S028 with the ILI9341 Display controller - not the ST7789 (parallel) controller, which is not supported by the graphic library GFX Library for Arduino

Project Description

This project turns the ESP32-2432S028 "Cheap Yellow Display" (2.8" or 2.4") with the ILI9341 controller into a standalone SD-card video player. The sketch scans a /mjpeg folder on the SD card, loads Motion JPEG (.mjpeg) files, and plays them back full-screen on the built-in 240x320 display. It is designed for simple offline playback with minimal setup: copy converted MJPEG files to the card, power the board, and the videos play in sequence on a loop.

Features

• Plays .mjpeg videos directly from the SD card on the ESP32-2432S028
• Automatically scans the /mjpeg folder and builds a playlist from the files it finds
• Loops through all detected videos continuously
• Lets the user skip to the next video with the onboard BOOT button
• Uses the Arduino GFX and JPEGDEC libraries for MJPEG decoding and display output
• Initializes the display and SD card independently for reliable playback on the CYD hardware
• Prints playback statistics to the Serial Monitor, including frame count, average FPS, timing breakdown, and detected video size
• Includes sample SD card content and a simple Video Conversion Studio workflow for preparing compatible video files

What You Can Customize

• DISPLAY_SPI_SPEED: switch between 80000000L and 40000000L if your display is unstable at 80 MHz
• BL_PIN: change the display backlight pin for board variants that use a different backlight connection
• BOOT_PIN and BOOT_BUTTON_DEBOUCE_TIME: remap or adjust the skip button behavior
• SD_CS, SD_MISO, SD_MOSI, SD_SCK, and SD_SPI_SPEED: adapt SD card wiring or bus speed if needed
• MJPEG_FOLDER: point the sketch to a different folder name on the SD card
• MAX_FILES: increase or decrease the maximum number of videos loaded into the playlist
• gfx->setRotation(0): change screen orientation to match your enclosure or video layout
• gfx->invertDisplay(true): enable inversion for CYD variants that require it
• Video settings such as orientation, resolution, quality, frame rate, and brightness can be adjusted in Video Conversion Studio before copying files to the SD card

Notes

Some model of Cheap Yellow Display works only at speed of 40Mhz, change the DISPLAY_SPI_SPEED to 40000000L:

#define DISPLAY_SPI_SPEED 40000000L // 40MHz

Convert Videos with Video Conversion Studio

FFmpeg is no longer necessary. There are no complex commands to learn. Just use Video Conversion Studio to prepare MJPEG files for this player.